Holyoake, George-Jacob 1817-1906

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George Jacob Holyoake was an English social reformer. His father was a smith, and Holyoake worked in the foundry, before encountering the socialist ideas of Robert Owen. He became a Chartist and teacher, and also wrote and edited socialist periodicals. Imprisoned for condemning Christianity, he founded the important socialist journal The Reasoner. He also opposed government censorship of the press, and worked for tax reform and other causes.

From the description of George Jacob Holyoake letter to My dear Hollick, 1898 Dec. 28. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 60494893

English agitator.

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Brighton, to A. Strahan, 1878 Oct. 10. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 269523399

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Halifax, to A. Strahan, 1874 Apr. 7. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 269525076

British social reformer.

From the description of Papers, 1873-1931. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 19643011

The growth of a liberal society during the Nineteenth Century is epitomized in the life of George Jacob Holyoake, 1817-1906. The numerous stages in his career, from that of despised atheist to that of respected Liberal journalist and propagator of International Co-operation, touch on many of the social and intellectual developments of the Victorian age.

An Owenite Lecturer and latter-day Chartist, Holyoake took a leading part in the Free Press struggle, and the abolition of the compulsory oath in courts of law. An active friend of foreign revolutionaries and a prominent supporter of Italian unification, above all, he was a founder, and the most important propagator of the Cooperative and Co-partnership Movements, both at home and abroad. He was, in addition, involved in scores of lesser agitations, and was a Parliamentary lobbyist par excellence.

The work of his lifetime was liberalism, the practical working out of Mill's famous "Essay": freedom to express beliefs and shape public opinion; civil rights for all, irrespective of beliefs and class, and that degree of economic freedom which he believed true Co-operation could bring. Intellectually, he enjoyed the friendships of J.S. Mill and F. W. Newman, both of whom influenced his own thought and outlook, and his correspondents included Joseph Cowen, Joseph Mazzini, Robert Owen, Mr. Gladstone, Sir John Macdonald, Justin McCarthy and numerous leading Radical and Co-operative Members of Parliament, such as W. Morrison, C.W. Dilke, J. Chamberlain, S. A. Beaumont, etc.

As a founder of the "Leader" newspaper in 1850, he provided a link between the emerging working-classes, never very religious, and the middle-class intellectuals, who were beginning to express their now much publicized doubts.

From the description of G. J. Holyoake. Papers, 1840-1873. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 63876250

George Jacob Holyoake was the son of an engineer and was apprenticed as a tinsmith. In 1831 he joined the Birmingham Reform League, beginning an active participation in political and social movements. This involvement led him to attend meetings addressed by Robert Owen (1771-1858). Owen was a leading social reformer and he greatly influenced Holyoake, who went on to collect his papers (see associated Hub entry). Then in 1837 Holyoake gave own first lectures on socialism and co-operation.

Holyoake became a writer and journal editor, bookseller and publisher. He was prominent in the campaigns for removal of tax on newspapers and for electoral reform. He was an outspoken reformer, becoming one of the last people to be tried for blasphamy in England.

Holyoake was involved in radical movements from early in his career. He was a member of the Birmingham Chartists. However, he was a moral force Chartist which meant that he did not become involved in any physical protests such as riots which were rife during the 1830s. He published a magazine called The Reasoner which supported moral Chartism. He was also involved in the struggle against government censorship of newspapers along with Richard Carlile and Henry Heatherington.

The Archive's collection covers his life-long active association with the co-operative movement and his association with all the leading figures in it. As one of the promoters of the first of the modern Co-operative Congresses in 1869 he attended and spoke at many Congresses, editing the reports of the third to the fifth and presiding at the seventh. Holyoake was an eloquent orator who addressed most noteworthy co-operative occasions.

He wrote numerous journal articles, books and also wrote many pamphlets on co operative subjects. As a journalist, his main aim in writing about the co-operative movement was to inspire, rather than to record history and many of his writings seek to imbibe supporters with verve for co-operation. His autobiography Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life gives an interesting view of the nineteenth century's radical movements.

In his later years, the co-operative movement viewed Holyoake as a link with their own heritage and the movements past. On his death, societies contributed to provide a memorial, a building to provide a headquarters for the Co-operative Union in Manchester. The Co-operative Union for the first 30 years of its existence had worked from rented offices, the Holyoake House, which was opened in 1911, was designed to include offices, meeting rooms and a library.

At the beginning of the twentieth century Holyoake arranged for the Robert Owen correspondence collection to be deposited with the Co-operative Union. He also collected his own correspondence, which passed to the Co-operative Union after his death. The National Co-operative Archive's George Jacob Holyoake collection includes books and pamphlets and over 4,000 primary materials. Further materials including his diaries are held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London.

From the guide to the Papers of George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), 1830-1906, (National Co-operative Archive)

The growth of a liberal society during the Nineteenth Century is epitomized in the life of George Jacob Holyoake, 1817-1906. The numerous stages in his career, from that of despised atheist to that of respected Liberal journalist and propagator of International Co-operation, touch on many of the social and intellectual developments of the Victorian age.

An Owenite Lecturer and latter-day Chartist, Holyoake took a leading part in the Free Press struggle, and the abolition of the compulsory oath in courts of law. An active friend of foreign revolutionaries and a prominent supporter of Italian unification, above all, he was a founder, and the most important propagator of the Cooperative and Co-partnership Movements, both at home and abroad. He was, in addition, involved in scores of lesser agitations, and was a Parliamentary lobbyist par excellence.

The work of his lifetime was liberalism, the practical working out of Mill's famous "Essay": freedom to express beliefs and shape public opinion; civil rights for all, irrespective of beliefs and class, and that degree of economic freedom which he believed true Co-operation could bring. Intellectually, he enjoyed the friendships of J.S. Mill and F. W. Newman, both of whom influenced his own thought and outlook, and his correspondents included Joseph Cowen, Joseph Mazzini, Robert Owen, Mr. Gladstone, Sir John Macdonald, Justin McCarthy and numerous leading Radical and Co-operative Members of Parliament, such as W. Morrison, C.W. Dilke, J. Chamberlain, S. A. Beaumont, etc.

As a founder of the "Leader" newspaper in 1850, he provided a link between the emerging working-classes, never very religious, and the middle-class intellectuals, who were beginning to express their now much publicized doubts.

From the guide to the G. J. Holyoake. Papers, 1840-1873., (Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University.)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn HOLYOAKE, George Jacob (1817-1906), 1831-1985 Bishopsgate Institute
referencedIn Flürscheim, Michael, 1844-1912. Michael Flürscheim papers, [ca. 1888-1903]. UC Berkeley Libraries
creatorOf Co-operative Union (Great Britain). George Jacob Holyoake-Robert Owen correspondence [manuscript]. Libraries Australia
referencedIn James Russell Lowell additional papers, 1802-1898. Houghton Library
referencedIn Papers of Francis Ellingwood Abbot, 1841-1904. Harvard University Archives.
referencedIn William Roscoe Thayer papers, 1762-1927 (inclusive), 1872-1921 (bulk) Houghton Library
creatorOf Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906. G. J. Holyoake. Papers, 1840-1873. Cornell University Library
referencedIn James Rigby Correspondence Collection, 1848-1858 National Co-operative Archive
creatorOf Jean Paul, 1763-1825. Hesperus : ms., 1832? UC Berkeley Libraries
referencedIn Robert Owen Collection, 1805-1858 National Co-operative Archive
referencedIn Ralph Waldo Emerson letters from various correspondents, ca. 1814-1882. Houghton Library
referencedIn Papers of T W Mercer, 1833-1961 National Co-operative Archive
creatorOf Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906. Autograph letter signed : Halifax, to A. Strahan, 1874 Apr. 7. Pierpont Morgan Library.
referencedIn Robert Green Ingersoll Papers, 1826-1940, (bulk 1866-1899) Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
creatorOf Roebuck, John Arthur, 1801-1879. Letters [manuscript]. Libraries Australia
referencedIn Letters of Edward Vansittart Neale, 1874-1891 National Co-operative Archive
creatorOf Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906. Papers, 1873-1931. Duke University Libraries, Duke University Library; Perkins Library
referencedIn Letters from Wendell Phillips Garrison, 1865-1906. Houghton Library
creatorOf Frost, Edwin Collins, 1867-1956. Edwin Collins Frost papers, 1846-1967. Brown University, Brown University Library
referencedIn Papers of the Co-operative Commission 2000, Feb 1990-10 Jun 2001 (predominantly 2000-2001) National Co-operative Archive
referencedIn Papers of Dorothy Greaves (Museum Warden at the Rochdale Pioneers Museum), 1838-2008 National Co-operative Archive
referencedIn Thomas Wentworth Higginson correspondence Houghton Library
creatorOf G. J. Holyoake. Papers, 1840-1873. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives
referencedIn Robert Owen Collection, 1805-1858 National Co-operative Archive
referencedIn Henry Villard papers, 1604-1948 (inclusive), 1863-1900 (bulk). Houghton Library
referencedIn James Rigby Correspondence Collection, 1848-1858 National Co-operative Archive
referencedIn Frost (Edwin Collins) and William Henry Frost Papers, Frost (Edwin Collins) and William Henry Frost papers, (bulk 1890-1927), 1890-1941 John Hay Library, Special Collections
referencedIn Carlile, Richard, 1790-1843. Papers of Richard Carlile, 1819-1900. Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
creatorOf Papers of Louise Greer [manuscript], 1851-1964. University of Virginia. Library
creatorOf Papers of George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), 1830-1906 National Co-operative Archive
creatorOf Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906. George Jacob Holyoake letter to My dear Hollick, 1898 Dec. 28. Pennsylvania State University Libraries
referencedIn Papers of John James Dent (Co-operative Permanent Building Society), 1876 - 1928 National Co-operative Archive
creatorOf Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906. Autograph letter signed : Brighton, to A. Strahan, 1878 Oct. 10. Pierpont Morgan Library.
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, 1836-1903 person
associatedWith Carlile, Richard, 1790-1843. person
associatedWith Co-operative Union Manchester England corporateBody
associatedWith Dent, John James., 1856-1936 person
associatedWith Duignan, W. H. (William Henry) person
associatedWith Edward Vansittart Neale person
correspondedWith Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 person
associatedWith Flürscheim, Michael, 1844-1912. person
associatedWith Frost, Edwin Collins, 1867-1956. person
associatedWith Frost, William G. (William Goodell), 1854-1938 person
associatedWith Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 1840-1907 person
associatedWith Greaves, Dorothy., 1931-2010 person
associatedWith Greer, Louise, 1899- person
associatedWith Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911 person
associatedWith Hollick, Frederick, 1818-1900, person
associatedWith Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906 co-operator and secularist corporateBody
associatedWith Holyoake Goerge 1817-1906 person
correspondedWith Ingersoll, Robert Green, 1833-1899. person
associatedWith Jean Paul, 1763-1825. person
correspondedWith Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891 person
associatedWith Owen Robert 1771-1858 person
associatedWith Owen, Robert., 1777-1858 person
associatedWith Rigby, James., 1806-1862 person
associatedWith Roebuck, John Arthur, 1801-1879. person
associatedWith Strahan, A., person
correspondedWith Thayer, William Roscoe, 1859-1923 person
associatedWith The Co-operative Commission 2000 corporateBody
correspondedWith Villard, Henry, 1835-1900 person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Ireland
United States
Great Britain
Great Britain
Subject
Biographers England History 19th century
Chartism England
Cooperation England History 19th century
Home rule
Labor and laboring classes
Labor movement Great Britain History 19th century
Literature Periodicals England 19th century
Social reformers
Social reformers
Social reformers
Social reformers England History 19th century
Occupation
Translator
Activity

Person

Birth 1817-04-13

Death 1906-01-27

Britons

English

Information

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SNAC ID: 5473495